Youth Enrichment Services, Inc. was formed in 1989 as a result of the merger of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sioux Falls. In 1980, coming together in an unprecedented effort, the Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA and YWCA jointly formed KARE-4, an afterschool transportation program for latchkey youth serving every elementary school in the city.
In 1985 the Girls Club was the first in the community to begin a specialized childcare program called Kinder Club, providing childcare, meals, and transportation to and from school for half day kindergarten students. As a result of Kinder Club, the Girls Club began a program called Kinder Prep, an early childhood program which prepares four-year-olds for kindergarten. Out of this program has grown the Youth Enrichment Services Early Childhood Education Program, which provides early childhood education, including Community-based Head Start through a Sioux Falls School District partnership, for an estimated 200 children ages two through five in both Sioux Falls and Brandon.
